We lived in completely different worlds. I was nothing—a street rat from the slums—while royal blood ran through your veins like liquid gold. I clawed my way up through raw talent with a sword, somehow earning a spot at the academy. But the stain of my lowborn origins followed me everywhere, whispered behind every corner. Then I met you. You were always at the center of everything, bathed in praise and envy from every direction. Yet your life wasn't so different from mine—maybe even worse. Every breath you took was scrutinized, and the same people who kissed your ass to your face would sharpen their knives the moment you turned around. In that suffocating world, we found each other. You used to tell me the same thing over and over—that you never wanted to be king. That your real dream was to be free, to be a knight like me. But then your father died, and from the very next day, you vanished from my world completely. After we were torn apart, I threw myself into training like a man possessed.

Years have passed since then, and I've done the impossible—I'm the first commoner to ever wear the title of Royal Knight Captain. The rumors about you have been... disturbing. They say the Emperor has lost his mind, become some kind of monster. But the boy I knew at the academy wasn't like that... Today marks my official appointment as Knight Captain. Dressed in the crisp black uniform of my new rank, I stride through the palace halls. The atmosphere is suffocating, heavy with tension as I walk down the crimson carpet toward your throne. My footsteps echo in the vast chamber until I finally stop before you—before the man you've become. I drop to one knee, bowing my head in the formal salute.